Settlement is sought in brutality lawsuit

Damien Fisher

Staff Writer

dfisher@nashuatelegraph.com

CONCORD – Maurice Belmore Jr., the man who claims he was beaten and falsely arrested by members of the Nashua Police Department, offered a settlement agreement during a recent mediation session that has so far not been accepted by the defendants.

Belmore filed his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Concord last year, claiming he was first hit by a Nashua police cruiser, and then beaten and threatened by an officer to keep quiet about the accident, according to court records filed this week.

Records show the defendants in the case are waiting for Belmore to produce medical information as well as other evidence before agreeing to any proposed settlement. At this time, the case is still headed for trial.

The accident itself allegedly happened in the early morning hours of July 2014, when Belmore claims he was hit by a police cruiser as he was out walking on East Hollis Street. According to Belmore, the cruiser kept going, and he was helped out of the road by a business owner who witnessed the accident.

The business owner called 911, and four Nashua police officers responded to the scene. According to Belmore, none of the accounts from the witnesses to the accident ever made it into a police report.

An ambulance arrived, but Belmore claims before he could get treatment, another officer arrived, pushed him onto the ground and pinned him to the ground with a knee to his throat.

“(The officer) threatened to arrest me if I said I was hit by a car,” Belmore writes in his complaint.

The officer then allegedly waved away the ambulance crew, saying they were not needed. Still pinned to the ground, Belmore was allegedly told by the officer to get up and walk.

“(He) told me I was going to get up and walk away or I would be mased (sic),” Belmore wrote.

Belmore claims when he then told the officer that he was hurt, the officer responded by handcuffing him, punching and kneeing him in the torso and dragging him to a police cruiser. Belmore claims he was placed in the back of a cruiser. He writes in his complaint that he was again assaulted when he was brought to the Nashua Police station on Panther Drive.

Belmore was charged with counts of simple assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal trespass for his alleged role in the incident. Following a trial in the Nashua District Court, Belmore was convicted on all counts except the disorderly conduct charge, and sentenced to 60 days in jail. He later appealed the decision, and the charge of criminal trespass was upheld, while the other charges were not, according to his lawsuit.

Belmore filed the original handwritten complaint in the federal court while serving jail time in an unrelated case.

Damien Fisher can be reached at 594-1245 or dfisher@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DF.